A Word From Management – Straight From the Heart

Sometimes I’m amazed that I’ve been blathering around the interweb for nearly 8 years. Probably more amazed that people read some of what I have to say, but I digress. In that 8 years, MJ on Travel has evolved, but the internet and blogging in particular have evolved far more, sometimes for the better, and sometimes not so much. I’m not calling anyone out, not calling anyone names, and I am not #angry. 🙂 This post is about how we’ll be doing business at MJ on Travel going forward.

On Where I’m Coming From

The overwhelming majority of what gets posted here is grounded in my experiences whether they be about traveling by air, land, or sea or a decade embedded in the operations of a very big airline at both the regional and major level. While I occasionally blog on miles and points topics, I do not consider myself to be a miles and points blogger. There are enough people in the bloggerverse to offer you all the education you need on that. I acknowledge that I might be perceived as a dissenting voice when it comes to miles and points programs. I do have an opinion on just about everything, and since this blog is called MJ on Travel, I sometimes write about what I really think on certain topics here.

On the Business of Blogging at MJ on Travel

I have affiliate links on this blog and will continue to display them for as long as I am allowed. However, several months ago, I made the decision to no longer include them in blog posts. They reside on my Thank You page, and on a sidebar widget. They are there. If you see something you need and feel that I have provided you with information you can use at some point, then please know that I appreciate your patronage. Otherwise, I am blessed with a really good job. If BoardingArea fires me today, I’ll be disappointed, but I won’t miss next month’s mortgage payment. On the other hand, there are some really solid individuals at BoardingArea (and in other spots too) who blog full time or near full time. I am extremely happy to see each of them doing well.

Overall, traffic has ticked up a bit here, and that is a good thing for which I am enormously appreciative. I want to keep that going and the only way I see that happening is by differentiating the blog in a very crowded space. I blog 5 days per week, with a weekly recap on Saturday, and a roadmap for the week ahead on Sunday. Of course, if something notable happens, I’ll post on the weekends. Otherwise, I spend the weekends decompressing from the day job, and researching topics which might be of interest to readers, and preparing a post or two for the new week ahead.

On the Road Ahead

In spite of myself, I’ve managed to build the blueprint for a legitimate business of which the blog is an important component. For now, building a better blog for readers is my focus. More on the other stuff when the time is right.

Marshall Jackson is an aviation enthusiast and avid cruiser. After 10 years in the airline business, Marshall moved on to a new career that includes plenty of travel and plenty of cruises, and that’s just the way he likes it.

I just anted to say that I have really appreciated how you have handled the affiliate links and ethics issue all along here at BA. You could have easily folded and joined in the non stop deafening hyper sell activity. But you did not and that, to me (and many others), show a lot of credibility and character.